True Love Stories Never Have Endings
by nancy fan
Summary: Duncan comes back to Neptune to see Veronica one last time.


**This is my first Veronica/Duncan story which I wrote for a challenge over at livejournal. It is set in the aftermath of episode 3:19.**

** Enjoy:)**

The sky is inky-black, when the Greyhound bus finally rolls into the ancient station and Duncan doesn't relish the idea having to haul his canvas duffel bag through the darkened streets searching for some god-awful motel to sleep in. The night though, does at least offer him a degree of anonymity. Coming back to Neptune was always going to be a risk.

In his new life as Kyle Webber, successful graduate of UCLA, Duncan finds it relatively easy to blend in with all the other fresh and impossibly eager recruits at Ernest and Young. Which is surprising, considering that he's at least ten years younger than most of them. Kyle Webber spends his days playing business executive, shuffling purposely through papers and suffering painfully boring meetings with clients. At night, it's almost a relief to become himself again. Bundling Lilly into his arms at precisely six o' clock every evening, Kyle Webber mumbles a hasty word of thanks to Sarah James before tramping up the stairs to the small room he rented.

It's a lonely existence and if it weren't for his daughter, and the very real threat of the Manning family fighting for custody, Duncan would have given himself up long ago. A prison sentence for kidnapping would at least have a definite ending, a definite timeframe after which he could resume his former life. This double life however, offered no such certainties. Ten years from now and Duncan and Lilly could still be living the same miserable lie. It is an unsettling thought and one on which Duncan rarely cares to dwell.

"You want a room, sir?"

The woman's bored voice interrupts his thoughts and gazing curiously up, Duncan can see that she has long blonde hair and blue eyes, in a shade of blue that was not unlike Veronica's.

"Sir?" she repeats, her voice tinged with impatience and Duncan realizes he's been staring at her.

"I'll take one for two nights," Duncan answers apologetically, digging deep into his pockets and pushing the carefully folded notes over the desk. He pays for everything in cash these days; something he learned from Veronica. It's harder to trace.

Celeste would not approve of the room, Duncan thinks with grim humor as he throws his duffle bag onto the bed. The walls are papered in a faded blue, making a horrible contrast with the red of the velvet curtains and the whole decor is a hideous mess. But it's cheap and offered a relative degree of privacy and those were the only prerequisites Duncan had, when he chose the Seahorse Motel.

Stripping off his clothes, Duncan steps wearily under the wrath of the steaming shower. He is exhausted, but then twenty-two hours of grueling traveling tended to do that.

Rifling through the pockets of his jeans, Duncan's throat tightens momentarily, when his fingers brush over the folded photograph of Lilly. In a few short hours back at home, the sun would be starting to tinge the sky a shade of murky orange and Lilly would be squalling unhappily, making angry demands for her morning feed.

The photograph clutched tightly in his hand, Lilly is the last thing Duncan is thinking about when he finally manages to drift off to sleep.

* * *

Three hours of sitting cramped and uncomfortable on a plastic chair in the ER room and if Veronica had even one ounce of energy to spare, she would be strangling Logan Echolls right now. The pleasure Veronica would derive from witnessing the last gasp of breath wheeze out from of his body would be tremendous and worth every second of whatever prison sentence she would be forced to served as a result. It is, after all because of Logan and his ridiculous pigheadedness, that Piz is lying right now on a hospital bed with suspected broken ribs and his face a bloodied mess.

I _will kill him,_ Veronica vows inwardly to herself, already fantasizing about the numerous ways she could wreak havoc on Logan Echolls' life. Finding out about his seedy encounter with Madison Sinclaire had hurt Veronica more than she'd ever admit but somehow this was even worse. Logan had completely fucked things up with her and now he is apparently trying to fuck up her relationships with everyone else. _How fucking dare he_, Veronica fumes, her anger almost explosive.

The emergency room is predictably chaotic, the nurses visibly frazzled and struggling to cope in the wake of a multi-car pile up on the freeway. Across from Veronica, there's a young girl crying, a blood soaked cloth wrapped around her arm and her mother raising hell with an unimpressed doctor.

The entire room is a vast display of stark, clinical white and is almost painfully bright. "God," Veronica groans as she shields a hand over her eyes, her head throbbing violently.

"Veronica Mars?"

Hearing her name, Veronica shoots up out of her seat like a soldier standing to attention.

"Yes," she answers a little nervously. Left alone with her thoughts in the depressing waiting room, Veronica's mind had ventured to all sorts of fucked-up places and none of them had been good. "I'm a friend of Stosh Piznarski. Is he going to be okay?"

Saying friend seems almost like a betrayal to Piz but if Veronica is to be honest with herself, she can never really see their relationship being defined in any other way.

"Mr. Piznarski has suffered two broken ribs and the wound above his eye required stitching but other than that, he's going to be just fine,"

Veronica nearly crumples with relief hearing those words. Though rationally, she knew Piz would be okay, rationality isn't something Veronica has managed to achieve during the hellish wait in the emergency room.

"Can I see him?" Veronica asked, though inwardly she is praying the doctor will give some complicated medical related reason as to why she'd have to wait until the following the morning.

The thought of having to face Piz and confront just exactly how messed-up her relationship is with Logan, is something Veronica could do without right now.

"I'll have a nurse take you up to him, right now," the doctor promises with a warm smile and Veronica's heart sinks.

"That would be great," Veronica sighs, her fake smile already plastered firmly in place.

* * *

The heat is suffocating and Duncan has only managed to steal a few precious hours of sleep before the sticky closeness of the night forces him to seek some refuge in the cooler air outside. It's still dark but a hint of blue now colors the sky and Duncan knows he has to be careful. In a few hours, the streets that were now so painfully deserted would come alive with the sound of cars making their way towards the interstate and mothers dragging their wayward children to school.

He'd shaved his head the night before he'd boarded the first, stifling flight to New York and now armed with the cheap pair of sunglasses slung in his pocket, Duncan looks a lot different than the scared, desperate teen who'd fled across the border with his infant daughter secreted snugly against his chest. Endless sleepless nights spent pacing the faded carpet of his room with a screaming Lily in his arms have taken their toll and the dark circles smudged under his eyes serve as further disguise. Nobody in a million years would believe that Duncan Kane, golden boy of Neptune High would be staying in this decrepit motel, all the designer trappings of his former life long stripped away.

Still, the papers had buzzing for days with the story of the kidnapping of the Manning baby. It would take just one nosy person to see the resemblance between Duncan Kane, indulged heir to the Kane fortune and Kyle Webber, moderately successful financial investor and he'd be probably end up serving ten to fifteen years in one of the states finest high security facilities. The consequences for Lily would be unthinkable and Duncan shudders inwardly as he picks up his pace and starts to walk along the tree-lined path that winds through the Hearst Campus.

He hadn't seen Veronica in over a year and he'd loved her. My God, he'd loved her.

At first, the loneliness had been staved away by the fact that Lilly demanded every iota of his attention. After work on Fridays, the guys would head to Moe's for a few beers but Duncan always tactfully declined their invites to join them. His weekend was already chock-a-block with endless diaper changes, a minimum of two sleepless nights and the obligatory trip to the park to feed the ducks.

But lately, Veronica had been creeping back into his head, thoughts of her choppy blonde hair and sarcastic wit distracting, when he was supposed to be concentrating on some incredibly boring financial report.

Ignoring it hadn't worked; the memories of ex-girlfriend only growing more frequent and more persistent, to the point where he swore he'd go insane if he didn't see her again. And his few attempts at dating other girls had been a joke, Duncan spending the entire evening comparing them to Veronica; the type of clothes they wore, the shade of blonde of their hair and wondering if his ex-girlfriend would have liked them.

In the end, the solution had been clear. He'd feign some family emergency, leave Lilly in the care of the Sarah James and make his way to Neptune by any means possible to allow himself see Veronica one last time. Then maybe, he could finally put the past behind him for once and for all.

During their monthly phone calls, Clarence Wiedman keeps Duncan informed on all matters relating to the Kane Family, passing along heartbroken messages from Celeste and Jake, whom Duncan know miss him terribly. Losing one child has been hard enough on his parents and with Duncan and Lilly gone indefinitely, it's almost as though they've lost their son and granddaughter as well.

It was also during one of these same conversations that Duncan learned that Veronica is enrolled as a student in Hearst College.

Employing previous tactics from his former life as cocky rich boy who could talk his way around any girl (except Veronica, that is), Duncan charmed the freshman timetable from a giggly member of the administration staff, feigning an interest in applying to the college in the fall.

Duncan knows Veronica well enough to know that she would have chosen Criminology as a major and more importantly, he knows that as an insanely dedicated student that she wouldn't dare miss a single class.

Stealing a glance at the map of Hearst College that was in his hands, Duncan knows that Veronica's nine o' clock Criminology lecture was being held in the Franklin building, the imposing redbrick staring across at him from the quadrangle.

He'd be back in the morning, Duncan decides wearily, with his pathetic costume of sunglasses and baseball cap firmly in place. Making his way apprehensively along the winding path that snaked through the Hearst campus, Duncan was about to head back to the motel and try and snatch a few extra hours sleep, when he spots a familiar figure angrily slamming her car door shut. She's cursing inwardly under her breath and when Duncan sees the flash of blonde hair and he knows it's her.

"Veronica?" Duncan calls out a little nervously, his fingernails digging in painfully to his arm. (It has been over a year after all and he hasn't so much as talked to her since.) But as it turns out, his fears are completely unfounded. Veronica runs into his arms as though the past year has never happened, her embrace almost crushing as she gazed shocked into his eyes.

* * *

Locked in Duncan's arms, Veronica feels like she is going to be sick, such is her state of emotional chaos.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asks, her blue eyes staring uncertainly into his. She remains in his arms though, not eager to break the embrace. Veronica's relationship with Duncan Kane was the reliable, calm to Logan Echolls' unpredictable chaos.

"I just had to see you, Veronica" Duncan explains with a halfhearted shrug, and Veronica can see that he's inwardly steeling himself for a deserved outburst of her legendary anger. And Veronica is angry. Duncan has been incredibly foolish to risk everything he's built for himself and his daughter, just to steal a few moments alone with her. (Veronica isn't naive to believe it's going to be anything more.) But it's also amazing to see him and her initial anger towards Duncan is quickly swamped by the feeling of euphoria that overcomes her, being wrapped up in her ex-lover's arms.

He brings his lips to hers then and though she's knows that it's wrong and that Piz is lying on a hospital bed because of her, Veronica reciprocates his advances eagerly, murmuring in contentment as he grabs her ass and holds her close.

"We need to get out of here," Veronica sighs, disentangling herself reluctantly from Duncan's arms and pulling him towards her car. Veronica had only come here in the first place to speak with Mac and help make sense of the fucked-up mess that was her relationship with Logan. That would have to wait now. "Where are you staying?"

Considering that the last time Veronica had spent the night with Duncan had been in the penthouse of the Grand, the Seahorse Motel is a bit of a comedown.

"Classy place," Veronica grins jokingly, running her fingers uncertainly over the grubby looking bed linen. "You renting this room by the hour?"

"Maybe?" Duncan cracks back with a sly wink, playfully pulling her down onto the bed beside him. "I was cruising through town, hoping to pick up some pretty girl and luckily, I spotted you,"

The mood turned serious then, both painfully aware that time was quickly passing away.

"How's Lilly doing?" Veronica begins, not pulling away, when Duncan drapes an arm over her shoulders. It feels good, like old times and for a minute, Veronica allows herself linger in the illusion that nothing has changed between them and they were still the innocent fifteen-year-olds who fooled around in each other's bedrooms, the second Celeste Kane and Keith Mars' backs were turned.

"Lilly's great. She's crawling everywhere, breaking everything in sight and getting into all sorts of mischief. I swear, you'd have to be a ninja to look after her, the kind of things she manages to get up to. And she hasn't even started walking yet," Duncan added with a rueful sigh, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the neatly folded picture of his daughter.

"She's beautiful," Veronica sighed, taking the photograph in her hands and examining the photograph of Duncan's daughter wistfully. _And so like Meg, _she wanted to say but didn't. Things between them were weird enough without bringing Meg Manning into the picture.

Settling back against the worn, velvet-covered headboard, Veronica allows herself to relax for the first time in what felt like days, though a violent pain still throbs in her head. "How did you even know where to find me?"

"I have my ways," Duncan replies evasively but Veronica immediately sees through it.

"It was Clarence Wiedman, wasn't it?"

"He still helps me out," Duncan admits with a shrug, lying down on his side and gazing thoughtfully into Veronica's eyes. "Clarence Wiedman was the one who set me with a job and got us a place to stay, where he knew we would be safe,"

"And Celeste and Jake?" Veronica cuts in curiously, suddenly overwhelmed with a huge amount of sadness for the terrible predicament the Kane family have been placed in.

"I haven't seen nor spoken to my parents since we left. Apparently, it's not safe. Although I do get the occasional letters and parcels of clothing for Lilly, all designer, of course,"

Veronica has to smile at that. The whole world could go to hell but Celeste Kane would do so in the most stylish and expensive way possible.

"How have things with you been?" Duncan asks then and Veronica feels immensely petty for fretting about trivial relationship troubles, when Duncan's entire life has been put on hold.

"Pretty good," she answers vaguely, a smile spreading across her face as she leans in and presses her lips to his. "But it's definitely getting better now,"

Their lips meeting softly, Veronica and Duncan kiss each other lazily, the pair luxuriating in the feel of each other's arms.

"I've missed you," Veronica murmurs, her eyes closed as Duncan edges in closer to her in answer, pushing her down gently onto the bed.

"I've missed you too," Duncan smiles and then he was hastily unbuttoning her shirt before ripping the material from her skin and tossing it onto the floor. It feels so good and Veronica doesn't allow herself to think, just revels in the feeling of sheer ecstasy as Duncan's fingers trail reverently over her skin.

Duncan is visibly aroused and wrestling impatiently with his jeans, Veronica almost gasps with excitement as he straddles her, the bulge of his cock pressing teasingly against her (thankfully) sexy panties.

"God, that feels good," Veronica moans encouragingly as Duncan slips his fingers inside of her and starts to slide them up and down. The feel of his lips pressing against her neck is intoxicating and soon Veronica's body is arched and pleading for more, desperate for Duncan to just rip the lace panties from her body and push his cock inside of her.

Duncan is obviously sharing similar sentiments and before Veronica knew it, the pair of them are pulling at each other's underwear until they were both lying naked on the bed.

"I love you, Veronica," Duncan murmurs softly, his lips pressed gently against hers.

Nodding slowly in answer, Veronica rises to her knees and straddles Duncan's thighs, while he looks on enraptured. His cock is so hard and sliding down on top of it, Veronica couldn't help moaning in ecstasy as it fills up inside of her.

Duncan's hands on her hips, she moves slowly up and down his cock, smiling a little in satisfaction at the look of utter rhapsody on his face.

"Fuck, Veronica, keep going," Duncan urges her on and Veronica almost screams as he unexpectedly thrusts up deeply inside of her.

Pulling Veronica closer to him, his eyes gazing longingly into hers, Duncan pushes her down onto the bed and starts fucking her instead, their moans of desire growing ever louder as he presses ever deeper and harder into her.

"I love you," Veronica murmurs and then they come, Duncan thrusting violently into her, one last time before he collapsed exhausted onto the bed beside her.

* * *

There's the sound of people splashing happily in the pool and the clatter of the housekeeper trolley being trundled through the corridor outside, when Duncan finally wakes up, his arm draped loosely over Veronica's stomach. The sun is searing in through the pitifully thin curtains and Duncan pulls the sheet a little higher over her face before curling in a little closer to the still sleeping Veronica.

He wants to stay here forever, nestled from the world in the shabby motel room but Duncan knows he can't. Lilly is waiting for him and while there is still a warrant out for his arrest, Neptune won't ever be a safe place for Duncan Kane. There's a bus leaving for Los Angeles at ten and Duncan had already resigned himself to the fact that he had to be on it. He's already outstayed his welcome.

For now though, he has eight precious hours left to spend with Veronica and Duncan is determined not to waste a single one of them.


End file.
